Former Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has accused the UNC Government of abusing its power and attempting to undermine the role of Independent Senators, joining a widening political dispute following the passage of the Special Operations Bill, 2026.<\/p>\n
In a strongly worded statement titled \u201cWhen Power Corrupts,\u201d Rowley condemned what he described as a sustained attack on the Independent Bench and argued that senators appointed to serve independently must be allowed to scrutinise Government legislation without intimidation.<\/p>\n
His intervention comes after all Independent Senators opposed the Special Operations Bill during debate in the Senate.<\/p>\n
Official Parliament records show the legislation passed its third reading on September 24 by 16 votes to 15 after being approved at committee stage without amendments.<\/p>\n
The Bill establishes policing districts across Trinidad and Tobago and provides a framework for special operations involving police officers, with possible military assistance. It also contains provisions for reporting, training and operational protocols.<\/p>\n
Independent Senators raised several concerns during debate, including questions surrounding oversight, safeguards, the duration of closed areas and curfews, detention provisions and the use of recording devices during operations.<\/p>\n
Following the vote, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar sharply criticised the Independent Bench and indicated that her Government would no longer accept amendments proposed by Independent Senators.<\/p>\n
She subsequently maintained that position while defending the Government’s ability to advance its legislative agenda.<\/p>\n
Independent Senators Anthony Vieira and Dr Marlene Attzs have pushed back against the criticism.<\/p>\n
Vieira argued that Independent Senators are neither Government nor Opposition representatives and are expected to assess legislation on its merits. Attzs similarly pointed to the constitutional role established for Independent Senators in Trinidad and Tobago’s parliamentary system.<\/p>\n
Rowley said the Government’s response represented something more serious than a political disagreement over crime legislation.<\/p>\n
He accused the administration of attempting to \u201cneuter, frighten, and render ineffective\u201d the involvement of Independent Senators in Parliament and characterised the situation as an attempt at political overreach.<\/p>\n
Rowley acknowledged the need for strong action against crime, saying citizens would support reasonable measures aimed at confronting criminal activity, but argued that crime fighting should not be used to justify what he described as constitutional sidestepping or abuse of governmental authority.<\/p>\n
The former prime minister also criticised what he characterised as attempts to divide the country along racial, ethnic and geographical lines, arguing that Trinidad and Tobago cannot effectively fight crime by separating communities into opposing groups.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe either fight crime together and win, or the criminals will win by our actions of tearing ourselves apart,\u201d Rowley said.<\/p>\n
The controversy is likely to remain active as further Government legislation reaches the Senate and the administration maintains its stated position on amendments originating from the Independent Bench.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rowley Accuses UNC Government Of Abusing Power In Attacks On Independent Senators<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-trinidad-and-tobago"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}